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Cape’s Economic Development Office looks to business leaders to help drive efforts

2 min read

Cape Coral’s Economic Development Office wants task force members from the community to help drive potential business their way.
These proposed task forces will focus on the Veterans Investment Zone, business expansion and recruitment, fund raising and grants, and a Cape-based higher education facility.
EDO staff reached out to the Council for Progress Friday morning and came away with more than a dozen people looking to take part in the process.
Assistant City Manager and EDO Director Carl Schwing said the task forces needed to be “laser focused.”
“We see it as an opportunity for us to truly partner with the business community,” Schwing said.
Council for Progress members vowed to bring a minimum of five leads per month to the EDO.
Joe Mazurkiewicz said it was important for council members to ensure they were bringing those prospective clients to the attention of the EDO.
“Now we have a commitment to do something … we need to hold ourselves accountable to these five leads a month,” Mazurkiewicz said.
Mazurkiewicz said he’s close to announcing that a university might make its home in Cape Coral, but declined naming the potential school.
He said the school was a private, not-for-profit university already operating in the Southeast, and would likely be able to make an announcement by the end of April.
Until then, the newly formed task forces will begin meeting monthly following the Council for Progress meetings, where they’ll be able to discuss, plan and strategize how to create jobs in Cape Coral.
The city’s EDO is interested in not only creating new industry, but expanding what’s already here.
Schwing said “80 percent” of their success would come from existing businesses.
“We can’t do this all by ourselves, we need your help,” he told the council.